The Broken Trio
by Oustretched
Summary: My first fanfiction, A Broken Trio. About Vlad and the struggles he has leading up to and closely following his accident. It has JackMaddie, a smidgen of JackVlad, and as always in most Vlad stories, some onesided VladMaddie. Enjoy, and please review.


**The Broken Trio**

Sitting across from each other in a big circle, the two college kids locked eyes and immediately smiled. The girls own purple eyes looked patiently over at his pale blue ones, and they both rose tentatively and began walking to the center of the small circle of their friends and peers. He fidgeted a little, nervously running his hand through his medium-length black hair, while she simply smiled kindly at him.

The green glass bottle below and between them pointed squarely towards where she had just walked from, and those around them offered catcalls and encouragement, only making the nineteen-year-olds blush. The boy and girls best friend, the one who completed the trio, was also hooting with his classmates at his two friends, pretending not to notice the bashful looks aimed at him on their part.

Finally, the raven-haired boy darted his head forward and dropped a quick kiss on his friend's lips. Silenced momentarily by his action, the crowd around the pair were dumbstruck for a moment, before they all began to whistle, and quickly everyone shifted in their spots to allow space for them to return to their seats.

Sitting down cross-legged, the girl smiled mischievously at the group, and reached forward to spin the bottle for her turn. Her hair fell a little into her eyes, and she quickly tucked it back with her free hand before waggling her fingers teasingly in their poised position over the bottle. After a few whining encouragements, she finally and suddenly reached down and with a flick off the wrist, the small green-tinted glass was spinning in rapid twirls on the floor.

It continued it's twirl for a little while longer before slowing to an unanticipated stop in a point towards her other best friend, the other black-haired friend from high school she knew so well. She blushed and took a sudden gasp; face reddened along the edges, worry tingeing her features. He was always the one to lighten the mood, crack a joke, and do anything to break the tension. He didn't disappoint her this time as he jumped to his feet, and doing an over-exaggerated arm pump of victory, making everyone around him laugh, except for the nervously tittering girl he was to kiss, he walked confidently to the center of the circle.

They came together in the middle and with a devilish look on the boy's part, in the next second she found herself in a dramatic dip. His eyes twinkled as he planted a stage kiss on the chocked girl. Then, before she had time to blink, he had set her upright, and was giving the whistling, suggestively hollering group a goofy grin before setting his large frame down in his spot. The only ones not laughing in the crowd of friends were the girl herself, and the other best friend, the one who had barely had the courage to peck the girl on the lips, both wearing similar dumbstruck expressions on their faces.

Awkwardly she returned to her spot, and looked almost fondly at her often overly silly, but nonetheless very good, friend, a dazed smile gracing her face while a new kind of emotion bloomed in her chest. It was a warm, tingly, fluttering kind of feeling, and she was sure it was a special feeling she should hold on to. And when he looked up at her, an unusually solemn grin as his expression, she blushed slightly back at him, a giddy feeling flushing through her body when he looked meaningfully at her before gracelessly spinning the bottle himself, sending it spinning into a far corner.

Across from the two friends, who silently glanced back and forth at each other, each considering new emotions for each other, the third one sat uncomfortably, glaring at the ground before him, one hand already beginning to trace and run through his dark hair, a habit he had whenever he was unusually tense or worried. Right now he was both, and barely noticed when the empty bottle flew in his direction, simply stopping it in it's path past him, rolling it back to the middle wordlessly.

His best friend, the one who had just kissed the girl of his dreams, called back, "Thanks, V-Man!" Vlad barely raised his head in acknowledgment before going back to focus on the awkward, also warm, feeling going through his gut. Unlike the flush of motion Maddie had felt, this one was stronger, and wrapped in a tight band around his chest, squeezing tighter and tighter every time Jack and Maddie exchanged another secretive, somewhat flirtatious look. It attacked his heart more viciously, tearing through it with long, raking claws every second that Maddie blushed at Jack's furtive looks.

He had to be shaken to realize that in a strange turn of events, after three tries to spin the bottle right, Jack had finally gotten the hang of it, and the glass thing now pointed directly at the pensive future billionaire. His mouth dropped open, only making those around him laugh excitedly at the potentially hilarious moment. He finally rose after the shock wore off, and he walked to where Jack once again stood, and gave him a curious look while he waited for some form of plan to come to mind to avoid kissing his best friend.

Without another word, the shorter raven-haired college student rocked forward on his heels and leaped forward, wrapping his arms briefly around Jack's neck while he planted a long, wet, and particularly passionate kiss. Dropping away from the stiff and slack-jawed Jack, Vlad laughed himself at the sight of his normally boisterous friend shocked into an uncharacteristic silence. Wearing t6he smirk his future self favored so much, the lithe young man gracefully went back to his seat, and collapsed into a light sitting position, and waited for a response on everyone else's part. Finally speaking, he said slowly, an eyebrow quirked comically, "That is what I'm supposed to do right?"

This broke the spell over the slightly inebriated group of kids, and they all began to laugh heartily, even Jack and Maddie, even if their laughs were a little bit bemused. Vlad leaned back comfortably in his spot while he delegated someone else to spin for him, since he had already had a turn. The chatter slowly began again as a freckly young boy clambered up to lay a slobbering kiss on a disgusted Harriet Chin, and only the trio in the room recognized anything weird had gone one. And only Vlad could name exactly what was wrong amongst them, as the other two were still wearing shocked faces,.


End file.
